PR storytelling: the three Bs
Whether big or small, all businesses will benefit from great PR storytelling. That story will engage your audiences – including customers, perspective customers and investors – to learn more about your products or services.
People are naturally inquisitive. When you meet someone at a party, you want to know where they come from, what they do and who they might know at the party and how. Rather than coming right out and asking 50 questions, you might take time to get to know them.
It’s the same with a business. When you are deciding whether or not to purchase from them, you want to know who they are, where they come from and how they ‘got to the party.’
This is where storytelling comes in.
Here are three tactics for telling your brand story:
Be trendy
Whichever industry you’re working in, there are trends on which you can hang a story. For example, if you are a cybersecurity company, the Equifax breach and new revelations about Yahoo’s 2013 hack are in the news. Do you sell Crocs, or ‘Croc-like’ shoes? These funky plastic comfort shoes are now on the Paris runway. Do you sell or manufacture drones? The FAA has just come out with regulations banning drones from 10 national landmarks. Do some research and hop on the trend that will help you to post the most relevant information to your product or service.
Be seasonal
Have a photography, photo saving or photo-storage business? Each year, organizations like National Geographic Magazine, The Smithsonian Institution and folks using the iPhone announce their photography contest winners. Whether a photography, wildlife or astronomy business, there is a snapshot of an idea here for you. And then, of course, there are holidays, back-to-school times, the four seasons and a plethora of other cyclical angles you can play on.
Be personal
How a refrigerator disaster led to the building of a $5.3 million company called JC Pie Pops and how a 17-year-old used social media to help grow his family business to $300-million are just two personal stories of brand building. Non-profits, such as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, founded by the de Villiers’ family after their son’s death in 1944, are full of compelling personal stories, as are tech companies, such as Umove and ReWalk, who simply wanted to solve a problem for humanity.
What’s your story? By telling it with creativity, vibrancy and novelty – and with a strategic PR and marketing plan in hand – you can effectively reach your targeted audiences to build awareness, credibility and sales.